Archive: Monthly Archives: July 2012
July 30th, 2012 by Cam Cullen; Category: Industry, Technology
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    At Procera, we talk a lot about our real-time monitoring capabilities in combination with our Analytics capabilities. We have done a number of blogs on “live events”, and we are seeing live streaming events becoming an important part of the user experience for broadband subscribers (and a big challenge for network operators). The 2012 Summer Olympics in London represents a watershed event in live streaming, as it is the first truly worldwide event, and is expected to have a significant impact on both fixed and mobile broadband networks.

    To honor this event, Procera is launching Analytics in Motion, a new site  (aim.proceranetworks.com) that is dedicated to providing worldwide visibility on the impact that live events and Internet trends have on broadband networks. This site is designed to provide insight to network operators on how different events are affecting their infrastructure. The network impact could be due to streaming, increased social networking activity, file sharing, or even a new application that takes the Internet by storm. We believe that Real-Time is “Just in Time”, and want to keep the industry informed on how the broadband landscape is reacting to these events.

    Although the site is run by Procera, if you are a network operator, service provider, press, analyst, or an application developer and have something that you want to share, let us know. We are happy to provide a forum for new and interesting broadband activity, and want to share this with the world. We are going to track events and new trends, and make this as world-wide of a viewpoint as possible. We are working with our customers every day on topics like this, and some of them have been kind enough to let us share some of this information with you (for which we thank them!).

    Procera prides itself on the speed at which we can provide our customers with business intelligence and analytics. The data we provide our customers is invaluable for network planning, service creation, and intelligent charging, and enables them to better serve their broadband customers. Procera employees are “geeks” of the highest degree, and there is nothing that we love quite as much as seeing our technology helping our customers and their subscribers (if you know any great geeks that have similar interests, contact hr@proceranetworks.com).  We have big long-term plans for the site, but you need to walk before you run, so I present to you aim.proceranetworks.com. Come on over and see Analytics in Motion!

    July 9th, 2012 by Cam Cullen; Category: Industry, Technology
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      As a consumer, I have been watching the move to the “cloud” with a huge amount of interest. Unlike many consumers, I have a much more visibility into what is happening with my traffic on the cloud, and there are some potential bumps for the power user household if they do not have a good handle on their usage. I happen to have a Procera system (a miniature version that we call a PocketLogic) on my home network that I use to monitor and control my home network.

      For example, for the month of June, my household used quite a bit of “cloud” bandwidth for content stored in the cloud and digital purchases.

      Application Consumption Notes:
      PlayStation  Network 65 GB Free Game Downloads from Playstation Plus
      iTunes Store 13.1 GB We have several iPads and iPod Touches; application uploads and purchases eat lots of bandwidth
      Mac App Store 3.1 GB A single Mac with no purchases, only updates
      Steam Transfer 650 MB Three computers at home use Steam for gaming (plus Civilization V: Gods and Kings was released in June!)
      iCloud 100 MB We are minimal users of iCloud
      Dropbox 60 MB Dropbox for work across two devices (iPad and Mac), very little activity

      Moving beyond cloud applications, I happen to have a household that is a heavy user of streaming video, especially YouTube (my children) and NetFlix:

      Application Consumption Notes:
      HTTP Media Streaming 51 GB  
      NetFlix 24 GB This is actually a very light month
      Amazon On Demand 5.7 GB Amazon does not have the extensive catalog that Netflix does, usually second choice in our household

      As you can see just from the above applications, I consumed 163GB without even taking into account my normal day-to-day activities (which in this case was 100GB for June) on the internet: normal web browsing, download, non-children video streaming ads or new stories  (I track usage per device, so I can tell the difference, there was ~2GB of pure video ads that stole from my cap in June).

      Although this is just one example of usage from a power household, there are some new business models being built that depend heavily on the “cloud” for service that are reflected in my usage patterns. Some high profile examples:

      Business Model Challenge
      Video Games/Software Distribution: More direct downloads, less physical media Huge size of games and software packages could cause consumers to have to monitor their purchases closely, and frequent updates could spike bandwidth usage
      Streaming Video: Direct to Consumer streaming, ad-supported or monthly fee services Watching streaming video consumes mass quantities of bandwidth, will blow through most fixed line quotas, much less mobile caps. By some accounts, Netflix became the largest “cable channel” by usage last month.
      On-line storage services: Single repository for content and files (iCloud for media sharing is a great example) If a consumer has multiple devices synchronizing with cloud services, a single file changed in the cloud must be downloaded to all devices.  iCloud might be the extreme example for heavy photo/video creators using this between Apple devices. This could grow to be a huge bandwidth hog in the future.

      These types of services are perfect for partnerships between the service providers and the content/service providers. A service plan that included “free” Apple Store downloads or iCloud synchronization would be extremely attractive to a household with many Apple devices. Netflix/YouTube/streaming video plans will happen in many countries, simply because not having one will be a competitive disadvantage. Gaming plans are already offered in some areas, but adding in download exemptions for new games will become more attractive as consoles become the new set-top box and fewer games are purchased in stores.

      The Cloud offers some very intriguing new service opportunities (as well as challenges), and operators that find ways to turn these challenges to services will differentiate themselves from their competition.